Experimenting with my air fryer

I mentioned my new air fryer in last week’s meal planning post. This week we have all been trying it out. I haven’t done anything very adventurous yet, but I thought I had better start with some basics. My air fryer recipes (if you can call them recipes) have mostly been potato based. It has been fun, with mostly successful results!

I was very lucky in being sent my VonShef air fryer from Domu for review. Quite impressed with it so far. It is so easy to use and also to clean when you have finished with it.

Tips

So far I have discovered that it is best to cut your spuds into even sized pieces and to shake the basket thoroughly half way through cooking. This air fryer cooks things more quickly than my oven, so I need to be careful to cut the cooking time and check fairly often that the food is not over cooking.

It is also important not to overload the basket, or the food doesn’t cook evenly. Only a small amount of oil is required, but it does need some.

Roast potatoes

In the past I have tried making low fat roast potatoes in the oven. They are fine, but potatoes tend to go a little sweet when roasted with little oil. This didn’t happen in the air fryer. I peeled and quartered each potato, dried them off on a tea towel and then mixed them in a bowl with about about a table spoon of olive oil and some salt. They only took 25 minutes to cook and came out brown and crispy.

They were so easy! I added rosemary half way through (when I took them out to give them a good shake), but it didn’t work as the herbs fell through the holes at the bottom of the air fryer! I think any seasonings will need to be in powdered form so that they stick.

Sweet potato fries

Next, I had a go at air fryer sweet potato chips. I cut them quite small and did them in exactly the same as the roast potatoes, but for about 20 minutes. This was too long as they were very brown, but they still tasted delicious and not at all burnt. I will cook them for 15 minutes next time.

Standard potato fries

Nothing different here. I cut them into chunky chips and they were fine with 20 minutes cooking. Delicious, in fact. My daughter also used it to cook some French fries from the freezer. She said they only took eight minutes and were perfect.

Baked eggs

My one failure with my air fryer? Eggs! I attempted to cook them in that for breakfast one day. However, I did them for far too long! Initially I put them on for five minutes. Because they were still quite runny, I put them on for another five. They were pretty solid with a hard skin on top. Edible, but in no way the delicious breakfast eggs we usually go for with a nice runny yolk.

I will have another attempt some time and try them for around seven minutes.

What next for the air fryer?

We have been given a mass of courgettes, but I still haven’t got round to cooking those in the air fryer. Definitely something for this weekend! I intend to dip them in flour and egg, then cover them in breadcrumbs.

Overall, I am really pleased with my air fryer. It easily made enough of each of the potato dishes for the three of us. However, for a big family I am not sure this 3.5 litre model would be large enough. It would be easier to cook your spuds in the oven. I am sure larger models are available, though.

It is very quiet and doesn’t take up too much space on the worktop. An air fryer is also very versatile it seems. You can use it instead of an oven to bake or roast. Apparently you can even bake cakes! An air fryer is not suitable for very greasy items such as sausages though.

I think it would be super useful for a student or for someone living in a studio flat. If you had this and a stove you wouldn’t need much else.

I intend to keep experimenting with my air fryer and will let you know how I get on. Does anyone else have one? If so, what are your top tips?

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9 thoughts on “Experimenting with my air fryer”

Never tried an air fryer, interested in getting one though so will follow your experience. I just wanted to ask if you’ve ever added Parmesan cheese, the dried one not the fresh one, to your crumb mix, very nice with vegetables like zucchini and eggplant. I also add a touch of spice to the flour, southern chicken, paprika, mixed herbs ground finely. They all add an extra zing to the dish. We don’t eat spicy like curry or chilli, but a little lift is nice.

It seems like a good idea, Jane, but it’s another gadget that I’d have to Find Room For in my kitchen (impossible, ha ha!) and really, we don’t fry/roast sufficient things to warrant such a gadget. I find that if I pop a small drop of rapeseed oil into the pan after I’ve drained par-boiled potatoes, give them a quick shake (with the lid on, I might add!) and then put them on a roasting tin and put in a hot oven, they roast really well inside 25 minutes. I don’t cook chips, they don’t appear on the menu here but if we do have a snack meal out, we will share a side portion of chips, but this is a rare occurrence, we don’t do this regularly. If I had one of these it would just either (a) be a five minute wonder and then gather dust or (b) encourage me to fry/roast more than we do already (Not A Good Idea.)
Have a jolly weekend,
Margaret P

Might look into this!
I used to own a regular chip fryer, but to be honest, found oven chips quicker, easier and a LOT less messy. Cleaning the chip fryer to eventually sell it was a pita!
We used to do roasts on a monthly basis, but now they only tend to be for special occasions!

I recently bought an activity. We have cooked chips, chicken pieces and sausages. They all taste beautiful and I agree with what you say – a close eye is needed as 1 minute they are pale and the next minute cooked and crispy.